South Korea sets ‘remarkable example’ against virus: UN chief

Praising the South Koreans for its “extremely successful” fight against coronavirus, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the country is a remarkable example of COVID-19 eradication, even as it is on the verge of achieving yet another milestone in its green campaign.Mr Guterres pointed that there were no new local cases of COVID-19 infections since April 28, and while it tries to halt its progress, it has also charted out a green deal to tackle climate change in the long-term. He termed the new government plan as “an ambitious green deal” in the post-pandemic world that seeks to ban new coal-fired plants as well as reduction of emissions from the existing ones. “We hope that this example of the Republic of Korea will be followed by many other countries in the world,” Guterres said at a news conference.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on April 30 that all four cases reported in the previous 24 hours were linked to visitors from abroad, taking the total to 10,765, with 247 deaths and 9,059 recoveries.South Korea has been able to drastically reduce the number of infections over the past few weeks with multiple measures, including social distancing. The government now plans to lift the curbs over the next few days to ease the difficulties faced by the public and the businesses.The country reported its first coronavirus case on January 20, the same day as the United States; but unlike the US, South Koreans were significantly able to stop its spread by applying a WHO-recommended test that targets the “genes”, according to a news report. Following its success, the government quickly allowed the private sector labs to produce the test kit.

As a result, it was able to test more than 20,000 people a day, allowing quicker identification of the asymptomatic cases for treatment as well as helping to slow the progress of the virus.In contrast, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to develop its own test, focusing on three gene targets, different from what the WHO prescribed. The test was reportedly flawed that eventually escalated the pandemic situation in the United States.

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